This is a forum for people who love horse-racing but love the horses too. We want to make sure that the racing industry puts the welfare and safety of the horses FIRST, despite the financial pressures within the industry that lead to over-breeding, racing the horses to the ground or sending them off to slaughter for a quick, easy and profitable disposal method. We are DEMANDING industry accountability through less breeding, more retirement funding & putting an end to racehorse slaughter.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Racing Industry "Catches" Equine Disease

I have got to say, if it wasent for this New Mexican Race-tracks Screening Methods, this disease might never have been detected. Nice catch NM!

As part of a racetrack screening program, 3 New Mexico horses have been identified as infected with _Theileria equi_, a causative agent for equine piroplasmosis. These infections are noteworthy as these horses are not epidemiologically linked to those involved in a larger ongoing investigation centered on horses from a South Texas ranch.

Information on the new cases, and an update on the Texas investigation, was included in a 24 Dec 2009 report issued to the World Organization for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties, or OIE) by John Clifford, DVM, deputy administrator of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The positive New Mexico horses did not show any clinical signs of disease. Preliminary results of the investigation indicate that the transmission of the organism might have resulted from management practices (use of shared needles or substances between horses) rather than by a tick vector, the OIE report noted. More than 1300 New Mexico horses have been tested via the screening program.

Officials in the United States have screened all imported horses for piroplasmosis for nearly 30 years. The disease was officially eradicated from the United States in 1988. It is spread by some species of ticks, the use of contaminated needles, and possibly through blood-contaminated semen of infected stallions.

Clinical signs of equine piroplasmosis can include a host of nonspecific problems, such as fever or anemia, and some infected horses might appear healthy. Blood tests are needed to diagnosis the disease. The only treatment is a potent type of chemotherapy that can have serious side effects in some horses.

The larger piroplasmosis investigation remains underway, with 357 confirmed positive horses. All of the positive horses have direct links to the index premises in Kleberg County, Texas. The OIE report stated these include horses that currently or previously lived on the index premises or live on a premises immediately adjacent, or [near] other "dangerous contacts" (a positive foal born to an infected mare was listed as an example of such).

Positive horses have been located in 12 states, with 289 positive horses on the index ranch in Texas, 41 on other premises in Texas, 2 in Alabama, 2 in California, 5 in Florida, one in Georgia, 2 in Indiana, 5 in Louisiana, 1 in Minnesota, 2 in North Carolina, 4 in New Jersey, 1 in Tennessee, 1 in Utah, and 1 in Wisconsin. All known positive horses are under quarantine.

More than 1500 horses have been tested for equine piroplasmosis as part of the epidemiological investigation, including 587 horses exposed to positive horses outside of the index premises. All of these cohorts have tested negative, the report stated.

As a result of the current investigation, Canada and several U.S. states have restricted the importation of horses from Texas. Horse owners and veterinarians shipping horses are urged to check with animal health officials in your state of destination to ensure the animals have met all entry requirements.

[Byline: Erin Ryder]

--Communicated by:ProMED-mail

[Although the horses do not appear to be epidemiologically linked to the outbreak that started in Texas, sharing needles between horses does not give a horse piroplasmosis unless those needles have been in a horse with piroplasmosis. In other words, the disease had to have come from somewhere. The question is where. Will New Mexico cast a surveillance net to detect where the disease really came from? - Mod.TG]

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A Little Bit About Me'Self

Lifetime Student in school of Hard Knocks.Born in Troy NY home of UncleSam,FALLOUT Capital of the Nation(google"The Troy Incident")other places I called home; Tucson & Bullhead City, Az., Seattle,Wa.,Taos,Ojo Caliente &Santa Fe,NM, LasVegas,Searchlight,Goodsprings,Jean,& Laughlin,NV.,San Francisco, Ca.,Portland,Or.,just 2 name a few. Places I have worked are bars, horse & dog tracks and casinos, and, later in life,law firms & with lawyers. Now in retirement,I stay home & mind my little mini-farm. In my spare time I pretty much live vicariously through the wonders of the www. I guess you could say (ala Eddie Rabitt) that I am - bloggin my life away,....lookin for & workin towards a better day, ohhh yeah. But however you look at it, there aint no gettin' around it, I'm jus' an ole' x-hippy-chick, struggling ever "onward through the fog" of life,....still here, still standin,..still laughing, after all these crazy years, and whats more amazing yet, still with at least some functioning brain cells!(Though through absolutely no fault of my own. Thank U geezis or whatever powers that be!)